Is Email Marketing Still Effective? 6 Alternatives for Comparison

Email marketing is arguably the most prevalent type of direct marketing, but that doesn’t mean it’s always the best option. As marketers, there are hard truths we all must face about this channel:

• The average open rate of email hovers around 37%, with some sources reporting rates as low as 20%.
• Many email inboxes automatically filter messages into designated Promotions folders (or the dreaded Spam folder).
• Deliverability issues continue to plague many companies.
• Consumers’ inboxes are overly crowded, with Americans receiving a collective 8.61 billion spam emails per day.

While email marketing is not dead, it shouldn’t be the only tool in your outreach arsenal. In this article, we’ll explore when email marketing is most effective, as well as highlight six alternatives that can round out your communication efforts.

When to Use Email Marketing

Email marketing can be a valuable tool when deployed strategically. Consider using it to:

• Send general brand news—such as an email newsletter
• Alert customers to upcoming seasonal sales
• Share highly visual brand elements
• Promote your content—articles, educational videos, and more
• Encourage browsing with multiple links

These are, of course, broad guidelines that may need to be adjusted based on company specifics and the nuances of your target audience. For example, while marketing studies offer conflicting perspectives on the effectiveness of email marketing with Gen Z, they generally agree that what resonates with younger recipients will differ from what resonates with older generations.

Therefore, pair your direct marketing data with your brand’s marketing personas to determine whether email or one of the alternatives below is the optimal channel for your messaging.

When Not to Use Email Marketing

Because emails not only have an average open rate of 37% (or less) but also are often opened days after they’re sent, it’s not the ideal channel for:

• Sending one-time messages rather than a series
• Notifying customers of discounts and events currently happening
• Sharing important information that directly impacts customers
• Reminding clients of fast-approaching appointments
• Short messages that lack strong visual components

Email is also not your most effective option for two-way communication. While email can facilitate this, SMS offers faster interactions and a greater likelihood of reaching a quick resolution.

So, Is Email Marketing Effective? Let’s Look at the Numbers

Marketing Channel	Open Rate	Conversion rate
Email	20% - 37%	3.57%
Text Marketing	98%	21% - 30%
Direct Mail	N/A	1-2%
Social Media Marketing	N/A	1.71%

Data: Voxie, Sender.net, Constant Contact, McCarthy & King

Email Marketing Alternative — SMS & MMS

This email marketing alternative is quite versatile, especially considering its impressive 98% open rate. Helpful use cases include:

• Sending a promo code for customers to use on their next purchase or alerting them to a short-lived discount.
• Reminding them about significant opportunities to save, such as looming holiday sales.
• Conveying time-sensitive information, such as changes to gym hours due to weather or next-day appointments.
• Requesting reviews or feedback via quick surveys.
• Facilitating two-way customer interactions, whether they be automated or with a team member.

Ways in Which Email Beats SMS and MMS

While SMS and MMS offer distinct advantages, email—which is not dead—still excels in certain scenarios:

• Email welcomes attractive layouts not possible through text. Yes, MMS allows for generous character counts and the inclusion of media. However, texts will never rival the design potential of email—nor should they, as people prefer “short and sweet” messages for inbound texts.
• Email is arguably more effective than MMS when including multiple links. MMS is best when you want to include a single call to action (CTA) and link. If you want to provide recipients with a plethora of options—such as clicking directly to different parts of your site—there is no alternative to email.
• Email is seen as being more formal. While this can actually be a “con” in many circumstances, there are circumstances in which this is actually advantageous, particularly for B2B communication.

Additional Notes About SMS

• Although SMS boasts a higher open rate, its costs are generally comparable to email marketing, leading to a respectable return on investment (ROI).
• Because of SMS’s high open rate, it’s crucial not to “abuse” your subscriber list by over-communicating. While email subscribers may simply ignore any messages they’re not interested in receiving, text recipients will actively unsubscribe. Therefore, limit your contact frequency to a maximum of once per week (with special exceptions) and ensure you consistently offer valuable content.
• SMS is a far more effective channel than email for two-way communication. This is attributable to the widespread comfort with texting, its inherent speed, and its lack of the formality sometimes associated with email.

Email Marketing Alternative — Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail marketing outperforms email marketing in several ways, but its most compelling advantage is its ability to leave a more memorable impression on recipients. A UK research paper even found that the long-term memory encoding of direct mail was 49% stronger than that of emails.

Moreover, your messaging has a higher likelihood of being seen if sent via direct mail than email, as 73% of direct mail is looked at, compared to email’s 20-37% open rate. Direct mail also lets you bypass junk folders, placing your brand offers directly into customers’ hands and increasing deliverability. Finally, direct mail provides plenty of creative opportunities. Why not try postcards, brochures, letters, or even branded swag like stickers or pens?

Ways in Which Email Beats Direct Mail Marketing

Despite the benefits of direct mail, email still has some advantages:

• Email provides easier performance tracking. It’s possible to track the success of your direct mail marketing, but never with the specificity achievable by digital mediums. For example, direct mail lets you measure interactions with QR codes and landing pages, but you won’t be able to gauge “open rate” like you can with email.
• Email tends to be cheaper than direct mail. If we measure the economics of email vs. direct mail on upfront costs alone, email has a clear advantage. However, when factoring in ROI, determining the winner becomes much more complex.
• Direct mail can conflict with brand messages of sustainability. While there are ways to make your direct mail materials more environmentally friendly, email is simply the greener of the two options.

Email Marketing Alternative — Site Pop-Up

This email marketing alternative is well-suited for upselling high-intent individuals currently on your site. What’s more, it’s extremely low-cost, no matter how many recipients you choose to show your marketing message to.

You can use pop-ups to offer discounts, alert customers to upcoming events, ask for survey participation, and more. However, arguably the most common use of pop-ups is to collect email addresses to further feed your email marketing’s effectiveness.

While site pop-ups are commonly used on e-commerce sites, other businesses can still take advantage of this tactic. For example, Saint James Iced Tea uses this marketing tactic to promote a contest, while food-delivery service Cook Unity uses it to promote a sale.

Ways in Which Email Beats Site Pop-Ups

Despite the advantages of site pop-ups, email offers some distinct benefits:

• Emails don’t require people to visit your site to see your messaging, broadening your reach.
• Pop-ups should be brief and have no more than two links—emails allow depth, nuance, and a whole menu of links.

Additional Notes About Site Pop-Ups

• There are right ways and wrong ways to execute pop-ups; do the latter, and you risk jeopardizing your site’s engagement. Therefore, make sure to follow general best practices and test audiences’ responses to the pop-up.
• Much like you can segment your email lists, you can determine which site visitors receive the pop-up and who doesn’t. For example, you can serve different experiences to new visitors versus returning visitors, site traffic from different regions, or even base the site pop-up on whether they come from a specific UTM code.

Email Marketing Alternative — Organic Social Media Marketing

Social media is akin to a digital billboard that speaks directly to your loyal fanbase. Use it to generate buzz about new product releases, promote hot sales, and convey your overall brand personality.

What’s more, unlike email marketing, your social media posts have the potential to go viral as other people share your content (though this will be the exception rather than the norm).

Organic social media can be cost-effective since it doesn’t incur fees for every post, unlike email marketing. However, the costs can rise significantly if you hire individuals or an agency to oversee your accounts or pay for the promotion of your social content.

Ways in Which Email Beats Organic Social Media Marketing

• Email is consistent while social media usage is fickle. The demographics and overall usage of specific social media channels shift with time while also being subject to abrupt changes in external factors (i.e., potential TikTok bans and platform leadership changes). If you invest in driving customers to follow you on specific social channels that soon fall by the wayside, it could be hard to regain their attention on different fronts.
• The average click-through rate for email—3.57%—is higher than social media’s 1.71%. However, both fail to compete with those drummed up by other alternatives like SMS and direct mail.

Email Marketing Alternative — Retargeting

Retargeting is a tactic that displays relevant paid content to people who have previously interacted with your website or ads as they browse other sites or platforms. For example, if someone visits your ecommerce store to browse for guitars, tracking pixels on your site can enable you to later show that individual guitar-themed ads as they scroll social media or visit certain websites.

The key advantage of retargeting compared to email is that it doesn’t require individuals to provide their email address, allowing you to proactively target people earlier in the customer journey.

Ways in Which Email Has Retargeting Beat

• Retargeting isn’t cheap, especially when compared to email or even pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. In addition to potentially charging an above-average cost-per-click (CPC), these campaigns often require specialists or agencies due to the complexity of setup and ongoing management.
• Not every prospective customer may be comfortable with being tracked and targeted in this way. In turn, you risk turning-off prospective customers, especially if retargeting is applied with a heavy hand.

Email Marketing Alternative — App Push Notifications

Unlike email and other channels, push notifications don’t incur per-message costs for individual recipients. Moreover, push notifications have an advantage over email (and even SMS) because recipients see the marketing message directly on their device without needing to take any action.

Ways in Which Email Has Push Notifications Beat

• Let’s address the elephant in the room: To leverage in-app messaging, you must first have a functioning app. This incurs significant development and maintenance costs, making email marketing generally more affordable.
• Furthermore, not every business is a natural fit for a dedicated app. For example, would a jewelry store franchise realistically expect frequent engagement with an app, particularly from customers who only make purchases a few times per year?

Is Email Still Effective For YOUR Marketing? Here’s How to Tell

• Evaluate key metrics. These include open rates, link clicks, and, where applicable, subsequent actions such as purchases or program enrollments.
• Avoid making broad statements based on limited data. Instead of drawing conclusions about email marketing from just a few campaigns, compare different types of initiatives—such as holiday sales versus event notifications—to determine when email is most and least effective.
• Assess cross-channel performance and synergies. If you’re running multiple types of marketing campaigns, assess how they perform against one another for specific initiatives. Moreover, consider how multiple channels can interact to create an omnichannel strategy.For example, let’s say you want to generate awareness for an upcoming 4th of July Sale:
  • Social media marketing can be used to build excitement around products.
  • Email marketing and social media can be used in tandem to alert customers about the upcoming sale.
  • On the day the sale launches, send a text message alerting everyone that the sale is happening RIGHT NOW.

Dive Deeper Into Marketing Strategy and Automation With Voxie

Deciding whether to use email or other marketing alternatives is just the beginning; the effectiveness of your choice will ultimately depend on the strength of the strategy itself. To further evolve your marketing, check out:

• Senior Living Marketing Strategies. Marketing senior care comes with unique challenges, requiring communication that resonates with both the older adults and their supportive loved ones. To build and strengthen meaningful connections, this article offers actionable insights on effectively leveraging email, SMS, and other channels.
• Fresh Marketing Tactics: Quick Service Restaurants (QSR). In this article, we’ll highlight key concepts—such as defining your unique selling proposition and building marketing personas—and share strategic insights to heighten potential engagement with your email and SMS campaigns.
• Grow Retail Revenue With SMS Marketing. In this article, we dive deep into the specific ways SMS can effectively drive your retail sales objectives and highlight the many practical applications of this alternative to email.
• Franchise Marketing Software - Top 9 Tools. Chances are, you’ll implement both email and other marketing channels. To ensure smooth deployment and consistency across your communications, you’ll need a well-crafted technical stack. Here, we recommend top software solutions that can help franchises achieve precisely that.